Today's Reading Is From The Book Of Huxley.
"My dear young friend," said Mustapha Mond, "civilization has absolutely no need of nobility or heroism. These things are symptoms of political inefficiency. In a properly organized society like ours, nobody has any opportunities for being noble or heroic. Conditions have got to be thoroughly unstable before the occasion can arise. Where there are wars, where there are divided allegiances, where there are temptations to be resisted, objects of love to be fought for or defended–there, obviously, nobility and heroism have some sense. But there aren't any wars nowadays. The greatest care is taken to prevent you from loving any one too much. There's no such thing as a divided allegiance; you're so conditioned that you can't help doing what you ought to do. And what you ought to do is on the whole so pleasant, so many of the natural impulses are allowed free play, that there really aren't any temptations to resist...."
Maybe it's just me, but this is the first time I've read Brave New World, and yet I sometimes feel as if I'm living in it.
posted by Nilk @ 9:54 PM
3 Comments:
I've never read that book but I will give it a go soon. Try 'Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds' it too has a modern feel for a book almost 150 yeats old.
Read them both in my late teens. We are so lucky to have a culture that allows for books of various sorts, even those that go beyond the realm of Islam! Even those that go beyond the realm of Socialist Realism and the Party line. One must live in a milieu that smothers people before one is able to appreciate the genuine blessing it is to live in a democracy, even such as ours.
Here in Canada we face "Human Rights Commissions," which you'll know of from reading Mark Steyn.We also have Ezra Levant, and they are just tow of a growing list of people censored and or intimidated into near silence.
Me? I'm not silent. I made a big noise on a car bumper by bashing my leg into it, and then I beat the Hell out of the windscreen just to make my statement clear. Ha.
Sorry I'm so late in getting back to you with my Christmas greetings. I hope yours is still young enough to appreciate oink-oink noises on the belly from me.
My best, Dag.
Dag, it's always a pleasure hearing from you, whatever time of the year.
And sfw, that book is on my reading list also, as someone else has recently pointed me in that direction.
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